Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Uriah43 "Peter Parker" (Nicholas Hammond) is a bright, young college student who accidentally gets bitten by a radioactive spider and soon finds out that he has gained great strength and can climb buildings because of it. At first he doesn't know what to do with his special powers but when prominent citizens begin doing bizarre things upon the command of a master criminal he realizes that he has little choice but to investigate the situation and to attempt to stop him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film served as the pilot for a television series aired back in 1977 and because of that it clearly shows its age. Not only is it quite dated but the special effects were extremely basic and the overall plot definitely suffers from the made-for-television format. Having said that, while I don't necessarily believe that this particular movie is a complete waste of time, I honestly have difficulty rating it any higher than I have. Slightly below average.

alanrayford It's easy to look at 1977's The Amazing Spiderman series and laugh our asses off. We've already had three live action Spiderman films that were able to perfectly capture Spidey's grace and agility through the use of cutting edge CGI. But, even before Sam Raimi's films, the original live action Spiderman series was ridiculed on a regular basis. Even going as far back as the mid 80's, it looked so craptastically cheesy it rivaled Adam West's and Burt Ward's Batman in preposterousness. But, hindsight being 20/20, I realize we all may have been wrong. It may very well be the single best interpretation of this character…EVER.I know this sounds insane. However, there were a lot of things this show had that really worked. One, for instance, is the lead. When this show was still airing on CBS, the comics saw Peter Parker as a college student somewhere in his early to mid twenties. He was depicted as being tall and having a lean, athletic build. Well, Nicholas Hammond matched those qualities to a tee. He stacked up to Peter Parker the same way Christopher Reeves did to Superman. I won't lie; his portrayal lost some strength when he was in costume. However, out of costume, he did a damn fine job playing Parker as a highly intellectual dude with great power and great responsibility.Besides Hammond's physical performance, I've got to bring up the special effects. Silly string that stood in for webbing; webs that had to wrap around flagpoles to stick; wall-crawling that looked like a man being lowered from an off camera rig; web swinging that definitely looked like a stuntman being hurled through the air at the end of a rope; Spidey leaping from rooftop to rooftop by overlaying video onto background footage. Yeah, they all look more like student film territory by today's standards—worse even. Nonetheless, when this originally aired, these visuals were bleeding edge stuff. CGI was all but science fiction. Green screen tech was too cost prohibitive for television. This was the best that could be done, and, in 1977, it glued asses to seats. So while the first ten minutes of 2002's Spiderman blow this out of the water, ASM was quite revolutionary and outright jawdropping for its time.Spiderman looked cheesy, but realistic. The truth of the matter is that spandex only makes for dynamic attire in comics, cartoons and videogames. In real life, even if you were built like Hugh Jackman or the Rock, it would make you look like a chump with an overly pronounced feminine side. So Hammond looking less than impressive, when in costume, is pretty much what Spiderman would look like in real life—deal with it. The costumes worn by Tobey Maguire and the one to be worn by Andrew Garfield are more dynamic and eye catching. But, between style and reality, I always choose the latter.Over its brief thirteen episode run, none of the villains from the comics were featured. This is a point of contention for most, and an understandable one. But this was a TV show in the 70's. There was simply no money to include characters like the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman or any other classic foe of Spidey in a compelling manner. Even so, ASM did feature a take on the 1970's clone storyline when it was still a fresh in the comics. It wasn't much, but it was the best they could do and was quite remarkable for the time.Given the era in which this aired, ASM was nothing short of miraculous. 1977 was over twenty years before comics were finally allowed to enter the mainstream without being frowned upon. It was an extremely hostile period where comic books were treated with all the dignity of a dirty Kleenex. It was so hostile CBS gave ASM the runaround for two years before pulling the plug. When they did, it wasn't due to low ratings because the show was doing well. They cancelled it simply because, after Wonder Woman and the Incredible Hulk, they were afraid CBS would come to be known as the Comic Book Station. Seriously. That's it. Hell, Stan Lee saw fit to bash this show (even though he was a script consultant). But I'm willing to bet that could've been over him not being given a cameo—something he's apparently quite fond of.In the over 20 years between the cancellation of ASM and the 2002 film which rewrote the rulebook on blockbuster premieres and opened the floodgates for Marvel in Hollywood, ASM was ridiculed by any and everyone. I too occasionally took shots at it. But, now in my thirties, I can honestly look back and see what ASM really was. It was a program that had a lot of ambition, took a lot of creativity, did everything it could to succeed and still came up short—all because it was two decades ahead of its time. Had the public attitude towards comics been more positive back then, this would've been on the air for years and been a smash hit. It would've been the best live action Spiderman, probably to this day.If you're a fan of Spiderman or of comic related media that's seen fit to ridicule this effort, stop. 1977's The Amazing Spiderman deserves your respect. It deserves all of our respect. And I just want to add Stu Phillips' theme is one of the most infectious pieces of music I've ever heard. It gets in your head and just sticks there—like a spider…man.

chucknorrisfacts I absolutely love "The Amazing Spider-Man"! It holds a very special place in my heart, as it was through this very series I was first introduced to one of the most famous and beloved comic book characters of all-time, Spider-Man.Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich von Trapp in "The Sound of Music", portrays Peter Parker/Spider-Man to absolute perfection. Hammond is smart, funny, and everything the character of Peter Parker should be and that Tobey Maguire wasn't. Unlike Maguire, Hammond actually has charisma and charm.Fred Waugh, the stunt coordinator, also took on the role of Spider-Man when some of the more dangerous stunts were performed. His work is still awe-inspiring. Some highlights include Waugh's scaling of the Empire State Building, hanging from a helicopter high above the city streets, web slinging from one building to another, etc. I enjoy watching real stunts performed by real people not CGI. CGI is too easy to spot, and it really takes away from the enjoyment of an action sequence. Give me a real guy in a real Spider-Man suit any day! The supporting cast is strong with Robert F. Simon, Chip Fields, Michael Pataki and Ellen Bry all well-suited for their roles. Simon's take on J. Jonah Jameson, the publisher of the Daily Bugle, finds that perfect balance between Jameson's trademark grumpiness and enough likability to explain why anyone would keep working for him. Chip Fields is a delight as Peter's occasional sidekick, the tough-talking but sensitive Rita Conway. Rita is Jameson's assistant, and while not in the original comics, her sassiness and playful personality make for a welcome addition to the Spider-Man mythos. Michael Pataki, the late great character actor, played the irascible Captain Barbera, a New York City cop who was often suspicious of both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. His character appeared only in the first season. Ellen Bry played Julie Masters, an attractive young woman who was both a friend/love interest and rival of Peter Parker. She, too, worked as a newspaper photographer but not for the Bugle. Julie's desire to always get her story led her to get in over her head on more than one occasion. Her character appeared only in the second season.While the series changed the origin story of Spider-Man, most notably with its removal of the murder of Uncle Ben, a satisfying alternative that was more friendly for 1970s television and for any children who would be watching was filmed in its stead. Aside from that, the series was quite faithful to the source material. Spidey's powers were generally the same: he had superhuman strength, the ability to cling to walls, leap high in the air, a super sense of a balance and a "spider-sense" to warn him of danger. Spidey's gadgets including his web-shooters, utility belt and "spider-tracers" also played an important role in the show. To date, "The Amazing Spider-Man" provides the only live-action depiction of the aforementioned spider-tracer tracking devices, and are featured prominently in several episodes of the series.I can't say enough good things about this show, I absolutely love it! I give it a ten out of ten! I definitely recommend checking it out. The series hasn't been officially released on DVD yet, but nearly all episodes have been released on VHS. You can find "homemade" DVDs on many online auction websites, you just have to look around for 'em.It has been recently announced that unknown actor Andrew Garfield will be taking on the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in a new reboot of the Spider-Man franchise scheduled for release in 2012. All I can say about that is there's no way he'll be able to top what Nicholas Hammond's already done. Hammond was, is and always will be the best Peter Parker in my book. Thank you, Mr. Hammond, for introducing me to Spider-Man and for providing me with many fond memories of watching your show while dressed up in my own Spider-Man costume, pretending to fight crime while on my own make-believe adventures.

fish4spider-1 the amazing spider-man TV series had had 15 episode's all together and did not last that long as a live action series it was shame as nicholas hammond wanted the incredible hulk and spider-man to team up but it never happened, the series did have its comic book moments j.j shouting at parker robert f simon was great as jameson he had the voice. aunt may was played by irene tedrow and was terrible as aunt may in the first episode she is constantly moaning at peter to take his pills for his allergy some of my favourite comic book moments spider-man's web shooter is broken and he goes to a taxi and ask' him to take him home the taxi driver refuses because spider-man has no pockets in his costume spider-man jumps on top of Capt. Barbera's car and puts his head down to speak to him, spider-man gets cloned and at the end j.j is dressed in a spider-man costume and capt barbera arrests spider-man but it not the real spider-man its jameson in the costume